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This Week in Pac-10 Women's Basketball

THREE TEAMS SENT TO NCAAsFor the sixth straight season, at least three Pac-10 teams were sent 'dancing,' as announced by the NCAA on ESPN's selection show ... Playing in the Spokane regional, STANFORD (32-3) earned the league's automatic berth with its win in the 2008 State Farm Pac-10 Tournament Mon., Mar. 10 ... The Cardinal, a No. 2 seed, hosted the first and second rounds on the Stanford campus, in the comfortable confines of Maples Pavilion ... CALIFORNIA (27-7) earned a No. 3 seed and also headed to The Farm for its first and second round games of the 2008 postseason ... In the Oklahoma City regional, ARIZONA STATE (22-11) played its first and second round games in College Park, Md. ... The Pac-10 has sent at least three teams to the NCAA Tournament six consecutive seasons, including 2006's history-making six-team tournament and 2005's five-team tournament.

PAC-10 IN NCAA TOURNAMENTS The Pac-10 has had an impressive run in the NCAA Tournament, sending at least one team to the Sweet 16 in 24 of 28 tournaments ... In addition, the Pac-10 has reached the Elite Eight in 18 of 28 NCAA Tournaments, including the last four straight seasons ... Arizona State is the most recent team to fall just shy of the Final Four after advancing to the regional final in Greensboro, N.C. in 2007 ... Stanford is looking for its first Final Four berth since 1997 ... The Cardinal have also advanced to the Elite Eight in three of the past four seasons (2004, 2005, 2006) ... California, which has earned three consecutive NCAA Tournament bids, has advanced as far as the second round.

2008 STATE FARM PAC-10 TOURNAMENT Stanford picked up its fifth Pac-10 Tournament title in the seven-year history of the event, knocking off No. 2-seeded California on Mon., Mar. 10, 56-35 ... SR G Candice Wiggins, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, scored 30 points on 12-of-23 shooting from the field in Monday's championship game ... Wiggins becomes just the second player in Pac-10 history to score MOP honors three times in a career, joining former Stanford great Nicole Powell (2002, 2003, 2004) ... Wiggins was accompanied on the all-tournament squad by teammates SO C Jayne Appel and FR F Kayla Pedersen ... Arizona State SO G Dymond Simon, California JR F/C Devanei Hampton and OREGON SO G Taylor Lilley rounded out the team.

TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES

No. 2 STANFORD (32-3)This Week: vs. No. 6 Pittsburgh (Sweet 16); vs. No. 1 Maryland/No. 4 Vanderbilt (Elite Eight)If there was a doubt in anyone's mind about the caliber of the Stanford women's basketball team prior to the NCAA Tournament, those are surly erased now as the Cardinal have marched on to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five seasons ... Stanford, playing in the Spokane portion of the bracket, will next face No. 6 Pitt, which upset third-seeded Baylor on Monday, 67-59 ... The two teams will meet up in the third round, Sat., March 29 at approximately 8:30 p.m. PT ... The winner will advance to the Elite Eight to face the winner of the No. 1 Maryland vs. No. 4 Vanderbilt game, which will be played in Spokane, Wash. earlier that evening ... The Cardinal opened tournament play with a dominating 85-47 win over No. 15 Cleveland State on Saturday ... SO C Jayne Appel was unstoppable as she scored a career-high 33 points, 29 in the first half, and added 12 rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal in 25 minutes played ... In Monday's second round game it was SR G Candice Wiggins who stole the show, scoring a school record-tying 44 points on 15-of-27 shooting ... Wiggins was just two assists shy of a triple-double, dishing out eight and grabbing 10 boards ... The 44 points were the third most points scored in women's tournament history and the most since Sheryl Swoopes had 47 in the 1993 championship game for Texas Tech ... Wiggins, who took over the top spot on the Pac-10's all-time scoring chart, currently has 2,535 career points ... With eight three-pointers made this past weekend, she moved into a tie for first place on the Pac-10's all-time three-pointers made list with 285 ... Wiggins and Arizona's Lisa Griffith have 285 career three-pointers ... This weekend marks the 15th time that Stanford has reached the Sweet 16 ... Stanford owns a 49-19 mark in NCAA Tournament play and is making its 21st consecutive appearance, and 22nd overall ... One of the NCAA's most dominant postseason programs, the Cardinal has won a pair of national titles (1990 & `92), and has appeared in six Final Fours and 11 Elite Eights ... Stanford paces the Pac-10 in scoring offense (75.1 ppg), scoring margin (+20.2), field goal percentage (45.9%), free throw percentages (72.4%), field goal percentage defense (34.9%), assists per game (17.49), blocked shots (177- 5.06 per game), turnover margin (+3.31), defensive rebounds (28.14) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.31) ... Three of the four Conference awards went to Stanford this season as Wiggins was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year, FR F/C Kayla Pedersen was named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and Tara Vanderveer was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year.